Sound of Pulling Heaven Down
by TheSoggyBug
Summary: Sequel to "What if We Could." 'Twas the seven days before Christmas, and Percy is staying at Annabeth's house for a week. Though it's hard getting used to the normalcy of the Chase family traditions, him and Annabeth get time to spend together to deck the halls in their own demigod style. Rated T for fluff. Obviously.
1. Chapter 1

_This is a sequel to "What if We Could." If you guys are awesome enough, you'd realize that both stories are titles to Blue October songs, and Blue October is one of my FAAAAAAVORITE bands. _

_Don't worry, though, because even if you haven't read "What if We Could," you will still be able to understand this one just fine._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of Rick's characters or plots or whatever._

_This chapter in particular goes out to Pokemonchen. Thanks for reading!_

**oOo**

I was never the patient type, really. Things like waiting for dinner to be done, a loading videogame or a bathtub being filled annoyed me, but almost nothing compared to waiting for that Iris-Message.

It had been a while since I'd last talked to Annabeth: maybe about two weeks. She'd promised to IM me soon, but "soon" couldn't come soon enough.

Back in the summer she'd gone with me and Mom to our cabin in Montauk for a week. That had been the best week of my life; there was swimming, boardwalk carnivals, beachcombing, late nights with pizza and soda, curling up under the blankets to wait out rainstorms together. I'd learned a lot about us that week, and it seriously gave a boost to our relationship.

Every time I thought back to that week the moments I remembered best were late at night, waking up and seeing Annabeth sound asleep under the covers beside me in her little purple pajamas, curled around the stuffed panda I'd won her at the carnival.

That week was the first time I'd heard those three words come out of her mouth to me. Unfortunately, that week was also the first time Aphrodite had come to me in my dreams, encouraging me and Annabeth to…

Well, I was against the idea at first. It seemed disrespectful to Annabeth as a woman, but she didn't act disrespected much when she found out exactly why I'd been so weird around her after that dream. It left a great deal to be pondered.

Then, of course, there was the day when Athena visited us on the beach and had told me she decided _against_ killing me immediately. That was a plus.

The last day we were together, I'd gone to dinner at Annabeth's house. We'd gotten there early when her family wasn't there yet, and we found ourselves chasing one another around the house and then in Annabeth's bed and—Well, I never told that part, but nothing actually happened because her family came home early. We'd fixed ourselves up just in time for Professor Chase to come in.

The dinner was fine, and after it was done, Annabeth had promised that I could go over to _her_ place for a week during winter break.

So there I was, December 15th, waiting for Annabeth to Iris-Message me and say I can come over. We both had been out of school since the 13th—Thursday—but I hadn't heard from her since.

Around 10:30 on Saturday evening, I sat on the edge of my bed, expecting my mom to come in any second to tell me to go to bed. Music was playing from a set of speakers on my desk and hadn't exactly been quiet.

I'd just gotten out of the shower and hadn't yet found the motivation to wear anything except for a towel around my waist. That turned out to be a bad idea, because five seconds before I got up to get up to get some clothes on, a familiar voice behind me chimed, "Please insert one drachma."

I turned to see the paused screen of mist of an Iris-Message. My heart did a little jump because I knew it was Annabeth. Without thinking, I plopped back down onto my bed and tossed a drachma into the mist.

Like I thought, it was Annabeth.

She was wearing those same little purple pajamas I loved so much and the dampness of her hair turned it a darker golden. I could tell that she was utilizing the shower for her Iris-Message-maker because the bathroom sink was visible at her shoulder.

Annabeth's face brightened when she saw me. "Hey, Percy!"

I grinned back, trying to ignore the flip of excitement my stomach did. "Hey! How are you doing?"

"I'm okay," she said, tucking a stray bit of damp hair behind her ear. "Bobby and Matthew got into a fist-fight after school and I had to break that up, but other than that, life has been unremarkable. What about you? Have you been having a good break so far?"

School had only been out for two days, in which I'd basically just paced my room and looked at pictures from the summer break—which, I had to say, was much more fascinating than the winter one. Up on my wall behind my bed hung numerous pictures, most from Montauk.

There was one of Annabeth I'd taken when she wasn't looking, sitting on the couch, absorbed in her book. Another was of her holding a piece of blue birthday cake grinning at me, and there was one Mom had apparently taken when we were out on the beach. Annabeth and I were in our swimsuits, kneeling in the sand building a sandcastle. The picture didn't show it, but we played Escape the Trojans afterwards and the castle was reduced to a dent in the beach.

My favorite picture, however, was the one furthest to the right. Annabeth and I had walked to a boardwalk fair on a hot day, and I'd convinced her to ride the carousel. I loved the picture so much because it showed my favorite side of her.

She was in a white cotton dress, holding the stuffed bear I'd won her, with a red balloon tied to her wrist. She sat atop an elaborately painted carousel horse while I stood next to her, my arm around her. Annabeth was scowling at the camera fiercely, but my eyes were turned up to her and there was a grin on my lips.

Every time I saw that picture I smiled.

"It's been the most boring two days of my life," I assured Annabeth, glancing back at the pictures on my wall. "It's been cold and lonely without you here beating me up all the time."

Annabeth laughed. "Well, you won't have to worry about that for long, because guess what."

Excitement flooded my chest again and my heart skipped a beat.

"Wait, hold on," I said to her hastily, standing up. "Let me put my pants on first."

"You're not…?" When she saw the towel wrapped around my waist, Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Caught you at a bad time, did I?"

"No, no. It's fine."

Quickly, so as not to miss anything, I got out of view of the Iris-Message to tug on some pajama pants at warp speed. When I got back, just for good measure, I tossed an extra drachma into the missed.

"Okay." I settled back on my bed. "Now you can tell me."

Annabeth waited a few seconds, looking at me with curiously narrowed eyes before saying anything. "…Do you have anything planned for Tuesday?"

"Uh… Yeah, sorry. I have to go get my dragon flossed."

Her look was blank.

"No, _Annabeth_." I rolled my eyes (though it was probably less sassy than when she did) and grinned. "I don't have anything going on."

On her end, the shower sputtered and we almost lost connection before flickering back on.

Annabeth was smiling at me with exasperation. "My dad and stepmom finally agreed to letting you come over for a week. On conditions, obviously, but whatever. It's a little short-notice, but can you come over Tuesday?"

"And stay until Christmas? I don't think my mom would like that much… It's normally a family ordeal…"

"That's the thing." Annabeth adjusted herself and I heard the clank of porcelain. Was she sitting on the toilet seat? "What my family does is kind of like…12 days of Christmas, except it's only a week. Seven days. This year we're switching things up a bit, but it's mostly the same. Finishing decorating the 18th, last-minute shopping the 19th—or anything that involves driving around, really. The 20th is always 'family game day,' which is kind of lame, but the boys enjoy it."

Annabeth's stepbrothers, Bobby and Matthew, were a handful, but they played a mean "Go Fish" game.

"The 21st…" She adjusted herself on the toilet again as she thought for a second. "We always make a gingerbread house that day. And the day after, my dad and stepmom send the boys off to their friends' houses for a night while they go have a fancy Christmas date, or something like that. They normally stay at a hotel for a night and come back later the next day. Maybe we could go out for a Christmas date, too, since we don't have to watch the boys."

Her silver eyes twinkled and I wished I could be there with her. A date on Christmas… That would mean I'd have to pack a dress shirt. Maybe Paul would lend me his car again. I'd have to figure that out later.

For another few seconds, Annabeth continued looking at me with that contemplative look she often got.

"So…" I cleared my throat. "Making gingerbread houses is going to convince my mom to let me go?"

She snorted. "I wasn't finished. Christmas Eve is when we start all the cooking, and this year, they've agreed to invite your family over for a big Christmas party at our house. So technically, you wouldn't be missing Christmas with your family after all."

It was brilliant in a really simple way. I was impressed, and after standing briefly, told Annabeth, "Can you wait here while I go ask my mom?"

"I'm not going anywhere."

As quickly as I could, I raced into the living room to find my mom.

She was sitting at the desk on the computer, her greying brown hair pulled out of her face.

"Mom," I said, rushing over to her. "AnnabethjustIris-Messagedmeandshewantsmetogoo vertoherhouseonTuesdayandsta yuntilCristmassowecanhaveaCh ristmaspartywithbothfamilies ." I took a breath and Mom turned slowly to give me a raised-eyebrow look. "Please?"

"Say that again," she requested, turning back to her laptop, "in English, this time."

"Annabeth is…Annabeth IMed me just now and wants to know if I can go to her house next Tuesday and spend the week there. And her parents invited you and Paul to come over on Christmas day so we can have a party with both families."

That time my wish sounded a little slower and saner, so Mom actually considered it. She spun around in her office chair and crossed her legs, giving me the expression that I recognized as the one that comes right before an hour-long talk.

"She's, um…" I pointed with my thumb in the vague vicinity of my bedroom. "Annabeth's waiting in the IM."

"Well, can you call her back? This isn't a decision I can easily make in thirty seconds or less, Percy." Mom saved whatever she was working on and stood from the chair. "Tell her I said hi."

"…Okay, Mom."

After she'd heard me mention the possibility several (hundred) times, one would think that she might have actually giving it some thought to as whether or not I really was allowed, but of course not. I went back into my bedroom and found Annabeth waiting in the misty screen as she had before.

When she saw me, again, she grinned and straightened up. "Well?"

"Well…" I shook my head and smiled as well, but it was more exasperated. "She wants to have a big long 'discussion' about it with me before she makes up her mind, so I'm probably going to have to get back to you on that one."

Annabeth's silver eyes rolled up to the ceiling. "Okay, then. Let me know soon, okay?"

"Within the hour. Oh, and Annabeth," I added before breaking the connection. "Mom says hi."

"Hi, Sally!" She waggled her fingers a little, even though my mom wasn't there to see it, and then the picture faded as our IM connection was severed.

Back in the living room, I was sat down on the couch. The lecture was similar to the one she gave me before Annabeth came to stay a week with us at the beach house in Montauk. It was twice as long and twice as embarrassing. It was all about our age and my innocence and not getting anyone pregnant and minding my manners and not getting myself killed. The usual.

I had my own opinions about such things, but the least I could do was nod and act as though I didn't have any kinds of those thoughts.

"Christmas has always been a family tradition…" Mom said after a moment's pause, looking at me with a sort of…nostalgic look in her eyes, "but you're a grown boy now. No reason not to let you go off on your own adventures."

The funniest thing was that she acted as though spending Christmas at my girlfriend's house was a bigger, more dangerous adventure than any of the other plenty I've been in—which actually involved near-death experiences.

"You're still coming for the party, though, right? Our Christmas as a family isn't totally lost." I was a little uncomfortable when she looked at me with that melancholy expression on.

"Of course. Don't think you don't get a stocking back at home." Mom stood and bent to kiss me on the top of my head. "You can go, Percy. I know most of what I said washed right over your head, but I don't believe there's nothing for me to worry about. We all have our moments to experience, moments that are there to teach and help us grow. Just…" She gave me one last look before turning away, "…know at what pace you're ready to learn and to grow."

With that, my mom picked up her laptop from the desk and wandered into the kitchen, looking wistful and shaking her head to herself.

It was impossible not bounding back into my bedroom. Excitement bubbled in my throat, and I couldn't help but humming a Christmas song to myself as I searched my drawers for more drachma. At last I pulled one out and turned on the miniature saltwater fountain I'd received from my dad as a gift.

When I'd thrown the coin in the fountain and asked for Annabeth, she appeared in the steam in her purple pajamas, attempting to hang some fancy architectural diagram up on her wall with tape.

"Annabeth," I announced, crossing my arms and grinning automatically at the sight of her.

Annabeth turned and grinned back, abandoning her diagram and letting it flop, half-taped against the wall. "Perce! You look excited. I take it your mom said yes?"

"_But of course._ Her permission cane along with the usual lecture, but I can go." With a triumphant smirk, I angled the fountain on its stand pointing towards my bed so I could flop onto it. One of the pillows bounced off. "I'm surprised I got off that easily."

"Me, too. Your mom is so cool. Is she going to drive you? Did she say?"

A frown turned the corners of my mouth down. "No she…she didn't."

"Well, good!" Annabeth cocked her head and smiled again. "My dad's going into Manhattan some time Tuesday, and he said that if you needed a ride he could come get you."

"If he wants to, that'd be great. If not, getting a ride wouldn't be a problem."

"Oh, it's fine," she assured me. "But hey, I should really be getting to bed now." She took a second to finish taping the poster up on her wall, and then turned back to the screen. "So I guess I'll see you Tuesday?"

"I sure hope so."

"…Have a good weekend, Perce." A smile crept up onto her lips and her drying blond curls shifted around her heart-shaped face. Tanned skin and the curve of her collarbone and the way her eyes were rolling and—

The Iris-Message connection dissolved. I was startled, and then upset when I realized I hadn't actually said goodbye. My mind had wandered off and she'd cut the screen before I snapped back into it.

Oh well. I'd see her on Tuesday.

With excitement in my chest too much for sleep, I lay awake for several hours, imagining spending the whole week before Christmas with Annabeth. It took a while, but at long last I drifted off with visions of sugarplum minotaurs dancing around in my head.

**oOo**

_Okay, maybe the ending was weird, but oh well! Sorry this chapter was so short. Normally they're longer._

_Hope you guys enjoyed it! Like "What if We Could," this story does not involve surprise monster attacks, because with Mark of Athena and all the other fanfictions out there, I'm sick and tired of them. So this story is free of surprise attacks! _

_Anyways, I know the structure is starting out kind of like how the last story did, but that's okay, too. It'll all be worth it._

_Please review!_

_Love y'all, and don't forget to visit me on deviantart as mymonkey13 or on tumblr as thesoggybug. Have a good week!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Sorry this took so long! I had terrible writer's block. Thanks for putting up with me!_

_This chapter is dedicated to my best friend in the whole world, Kassidy. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING THIS STORY. You're beautiful. 3_

_Anyways, go on! We're all waiting for Tuesday to happen, aren't we?_

_Disclaimer (that I forgot chapter one): I don't own any characters from Percy Jackson or anything like that. I can't count how many times I've said that._

**oOo**

Tuesday couldn't come fast enough. The impatience was similar to the days leading up to the week in Montauk, but it was less time, so of course it went by slower. I packed and repacked a backpack about four times before being satisfied, only to do it all over again an hour later.

My mom and Paul accepted my jumpy, excited self gracefully and didn't say anything every time I'd go to bed at six o'clock or lock myself in my room to stare at the pictures up on my wall. I admit it was a little juvenile, but anyone could understand my excitement.

For Mom to actually let me go to my girlfriend's house for a whole _week_ without her tagging along was something to mark in the history books.

When Tuesday morning finally came around, I woke up feeling like a zombie. My excitement had allowed me no sleep the previous night, and when I finally DID, it was restless and light. When I awoke, my mouth tasted like morning breath and my neck was stiff. Though I really wanted to bound out of bed and run down the hallway, my brain, which was still half-asleep, only let me move a few inches a minute.

I slowly sat up and blinked my sticky eyes. Tuesday. Hm. Cereal sounded nice right then. Great, I was sounding like Demeter… Yawning, I got up out of bed and shuffled out in search of a huge bowl of Fruit Loops.

On my way down the hall, I head some murmurs coming from in the living room. Mom was probably watching TV or something. Ignoring the noises, I shuffled past the living room door and made my way into the kitchen. There, I poured myself some cereal.

The clock on the stove read 10:47AM.

When I shuffled back out of the kitchen to go see what my mom was watching, I was surprised to see that the murmurs hadn't been coming from our TV set. There, sitting on the couch next to my mom, was Annabeth. They were both bent over some big book or something, chuckling quietly. I leaned against the wall next the door, eating my Fruit Loops and watching them.

"…and this is the day after his third birthday when he was trying out his new rubber duck in the bath!" Mom was saying, pointing at something in the book. "Look at his cute little bubble beard!"

Oh wait.

"Gods, Mom, are you seriously showing her pictures of me in the bathtub?"

The admonishment in my tone made both of them quickly snap their heads up to look at me. Annabeth's face split into a grin, but my mom's was less excited to see me.

"Good morning, dear," she said, turning her eyes back to the photo album. "You're welcome to join us if you go put on a shirt."

I scooped a spoonful of cereal into my mouth and, ignoring Mom's request, detached myself from the wall to go peer over their shoulders at the album. It was full of pictures of me running around without my diaper, sitting in a high-chair with food smeared all over my face, in the bath holding a giant rubber duck, and so on.

"…You were _so_ cute," Annabeth said after a few seconds, glancing up at me. "You and your little rubber ducky…"

"We've already gone over this whole blackmail thing," I reminded her. "Don't start again. So, are you hungry? I can get you some cereal."

"I already ate, thank you." Her gaze turned back down to the photo album. "Nice shorts, by the way."

Of course, Mom immediately looked up and scolded me for the second time. "Percy, _please_ go put on some clothes. You're in the presence of ladies."

"I didn't know she'd be coming this early."

"Glad to see you too, _sweetie_." The gray in Annabeth's eyes flashed in amusement. "And it's not really that early."

I kissed her cheek before sauntering off to put my bowl away and change into real clothes and maybe even brush my teeth.

Somewhere between leaving the living room and returning, the sleepy indifference of Annabeth's company turned into wild excitement once more. I realized she was here to take me back to her house to stay for a week, and I was caught practically skipping back into the living room.

Mom had disappeared, leaving Annabeth alone. She was standing, looking at the books on our bookshelf.

I snuck up behind her and put my chin on the top of her head.

"You're really bad at sneaking," she observed, turning around to face me with a roll of her eyes, "and obviously not an early bird."

"You know I'm not." A smirk spread across my lips. "I really didn't expect you here so soon. I might have had a chance to wake up before saying good morning."

"Well, you're awake now, right?"

"Of course I am, and I definitely owe you something." Really, her smile was too adorable to resist, so I put my hands on her face and kissed her. Thank goodness I remembered to brush my teeth.

When we broke away, her smile had grown, and made the corners of her silver eyes crinkle. "Good morning to you, too, Percy. You have your stuff ready for this week?"

"Have I ever _not_ been ready? Wait—don't answer that."

Annabeth laughed and took a book off the shelf to study it. "Well, my dad should be here in about fifteen minutes. He dropped me off here and then went to do something real fast, but we both expected you to be awake. Your mom let me in."

"And she decided to show you every embarrassing baby picture ever taken of me." Thanks a lot, Mom. I'd have to get used to that, though. "So if your dad's going to be here soon, I should probably get my stuff and put some shoes on, hm?"

"Probably." After putting the book back, Annabeth stretched her arms above her head. A strip of pale skin appeared between the bottom of her shirt and the waistband of her jeans. "He doesn't like to be kept waiting."

"Like father like daughter, I suppose…"

"I resent that." She pushed me by the shoulder in the direction of my room. "Go get your stuff or I'm leaving without you."

"Harsh." With a little laugh, I complied and went to go retrieve my luggage.

Within fifteen minutes, Professor Chase arrived, as promised. He shook my mom's hand (since Paul was at Goode finishing up some teacher stuff) and shook mine.

"I hope you don't mind us coming by so soon, Percy," he said. "Annabeth says you like an early start on your day."

I shot Annabeth a look—imagining all the things I could get back at her with—and laughed convincingly. "She knows me, alright. I wasn't surprised or _anything_."

Annabeth pinched my arm. "How about I help you take your bags down to the car?"

"I'm a guy. I only ever have one bag."

She pinched me again and flung my backpack over her shoulder. "And it's going to fly itself to the car? Come on."

Not knowing if it was exasperation or excitement that made me, I ran after her out the door.

When we got down to Professor Chase's Volkswagen, Annabeth tossed my bag in and turned around to face me again with one of _those_ looks on.

"You know, if you wake me up before nine at all this week, I'll—"

"You'll what?" She put her hands briefly around my neck and kissed me.

I wasn't sure if I hated it or loved it when she did that.

When the kiss ended, it took a while for my brain to defog.

While heading back inside, I put an arm around Annabeth's waist. "Have you ever thought of how much you could _use_ me? How much power you have over me?"

"Of course I realize. I don't see why I'd ever need to use that against you, though."

"…You know, in _my_ book, waking up early on a break is against me."

"Well, if you want to sleep in until noon every day that's fine, but I was under the impression that you're coming over to spend time with _me_. Not my couch."

"…Does you _on_ your couch count?"

Annabeth eyed me really hard before her face split into a wide, amused smile, but she said nothing.

Back inside, Mom—as usual—was fussing over me.

"Now, be good over there, Percy. Try not to blow anything up or get yourself killed," she told me while fixing the hood of my jacket.

"I'll _try_," I rolled my eyes, "but I can't guarantee anything."

Annabeth huffed and crossed her arms, shaking her head with exasperation. Then she smiled at my mom. "Don't worry, Ms.—I mean, Sally. I'll keep him in check. We'll put him to work shoveling the driveway or something."

"Good, character-building work." My mom laughed, and pulled me into a tight hug. "I'll see you next week, then, okay?"

"See you, Mom." I hugged her back tightly, and when I let go, she was looking at me with that certain motherly expression.

"Remember what I told you, dear."

"Of course. Tell Paul I said 'bye,' too."

"Have a good time, you two." She patted my cheek and shook Professor Chase's & Annabeth's hands one more time.

Annabeth's hand found mine. "We'll see you at Christmas!" She told my mom.

With that, we turned our backs on my waving mother and followed Fredrick Chase out of the door.

It was cold outside, so Annabeth and I were glad to get into the nice warm van. Snow had already hit Manhattan, and grey sludge lined the streets, piled on the high rooftops, and coated the sidewalks to make them extra slippery for the pedestrians.

When we were firmly buckled in and hit the road, Annabeth tucked her feet under herself and settled against me. "You ready to deal with my abnormally normal family during the busiest time of the year for a week, Perce?"

For some reason, images of Annabeth sitting in front of her fireplace wearing little Rudolf pajamas popped up into my mind, and it was impossible not to smile. "Bring it on."

It was a long ride to the Chase's house, but there was no boredom in the van. Annabeth busied herself with telling me about another one of her fancy-pants architecture ideas, and _I_ busied _myself_ with watching her facial expressions as she talked. It was…amusing, to say in the least.

When we got there, Professor Chase parked his Volkswagen and turned around in his seat briefly. "I leave to give a class at one, and Bobby and Matthew should be here around 2:30, and Jia will be back from work around three. Does that sound alright? Are you okay with having the boys for half an hour?"

What was I going to say? _No_, it didn't sound alright?

Annabeth and I shrugged and mumbled some affirmative and the hopped out of the van into the cold air once more. Before she could, I grabbed my backpack and got out to open the door for her. She just rolled her eyes—as usual.

Inside her house it was as warm and friendly as usual, except with a touch of Christmas added. Immediately when you walk in the door, the living room is to the left, and a massive Christmas tree was up against the wall. Lights were wrapped around it and on top was perched a traditional star. The decorations illuminated the room with color and warmth. There was still a box of ornaments and lights sitting open on the floor next to it, though.

In addition to the tree, paper chains and homemade paper snowflakes were hung on the walls and windows. There was an electric fireplace off to the right of the tree with a box of stockings next to it that had yet to be hung.

The whole place smelled of cinnamon and spices, making it taste like cookies, warming me from the inside out.

"You coming, Perce?" Annabeth glanced behind her, and I realized that I'd been standing in the doorway, soaking in the feeling of Christmastime.

I felt a smile growing on my face and I followed.

As Professor Chase got ready for his class, Annabeth was dragging me around nearly every inch of her house, showing me around (though I've been to her house a lot) and showed me how everything worked, from the washing machine to the thermostat to the shower.

"Feel free to just…make yourself at home this week," she said, gesturing around as we stood in the center of the living room. "Really. Anything you need, just…" She gestured again.

"Alright, I'm off." Professor Chase came into the living room right then, pulling on a coat and smiling at his daughter. "You'll be okay while I'm gone?"

"We'll be _fine_, Dad." Annabeth gave her dad an annoyed look.

"Feel free to open the hide-a-bed and get everything situated, but do me a favor and don't destroy anything. I'll be back later." After giving her an obviously unwanted and embarrassing kiss on the top of the head, the professor waved at us and left through the front door of the house.

There was a pause after Professor Chase left, in which Annabeth and I stood there silently in the living room, blinking around at the walls.

Being ADHD, I got distracted by one of the boxes sitting on the floor next to the Christmas tree. I walked over to it and opened one of the flaps back to peer inside.

On the top of balled-up newspaper cushioning was a familiar picture: me and Annabeth during my fifth year of camp, sitting side-by-side on a bench. I had my arm around her shoulders and she was giving me an annoyed look. The picture was crammed into an ornament frame and had a little ribbon to hang it up on it.

Annabeth saw me pick it up, and she went over to me. "…We were going to hang the ornaments today. That's my favorite."

Just the fact that Annabeth kept a picture of us to hang on her tree every year meant everything to me. I glanced over at Annabeth and saw her face was as bright as mine felt.

"Go ahead and hang it up if you want," she said.

I hung it near the top and watched it glow against the colors of the lights.

"So the ceremonious hanging of the first Christmas ornament has taken place," I said, turning back to Annabeth. "Should we celebrate?"

If I'd been expecting a kiss or something like that, I was sorely mistaken.

Annabeth crossed her arms and looked over at the couch against the wall. "We should probably pop the hide-a-bed out. Go grab an extra set of sheets from the linin closet, will you?"

"Yes, ma'am…" I sighed and wandered back off towards the hallway where she'd showed me where the linin closet was not minutes before.

There was a feeling in the air that was so hard to place. No, not hard to place, hard to _describe_. It was just… The colors of the Christmas lights and the cookie-tasting warmth of the house and the flickering of the fire in the fireplace, and _Annabeth_, just being around her with all of the Christmas spirit so strong I could almost grasp it.

It filled up my lungs and squeezed my heart and throat and I didn't know what to do with the feeling because it was filling me up so thoroughly. It wasn't a bad thing, though. It was one of the most wonderful feelings I'd ever experienced.

When I got back into the living room, Annabeth was folding the couch throws.

Without much warning, I tossed the bedclothes onto the hide-a-bed, pulled her against me and kissed her, burying my fingers in her hair and feeling our chests pressed up against one another's.

"Percy," she laughed with surprise against my mouth and pulled away—but keeping her arms around my waist. "Really, what was that? I was trying to fold!"

The couch throw was on the floor.

"Sorry," I told her, not really meaning it. A smile was stretched onto my face and nuzzled my face briefly into her blond curls before stepping away. "You can go back to folding now. I'm good."

The look on Annabeth's face was _beyond_ precious, all frustrated and amused and loving. She picked up the throw again and re-folded it, slinging it on the back of an armchair briefly before picking up the second throw.

I made an attempt at putting the sheet on the hide-a-bed, failed, and had a seat at the end to watch Annabeth. Her curls bounced as she moved, and she had to keep brushing them away from her face.

"We should probably get the rest of the decorations ready," she was saying, "for when the boys get home. The windows on the north wall still need lights and the ornaments and stockings need to be hung…" She glanced over at me and saw my failed attempt at making the bed. Shaking her head and grinning, Annabeth shooed me off to do it herself. "You're really something, Percy. You can slay titans but can't make a bed."

"I don't recall making beds being in the demigod job description."

"It kind of goes along with being a responsible human being, you know."

I scoffed and sauntered over to the box of ornaments to pluck one out. It was a little orange globe with a racecar on it.

"Put that back," Annabeth said, snatching it away and putting it back in the box. "We have to wait for Bobby and Matthew."

"I'm surprised your dad trusted us enough to leave us alone for an hour and a half…" After wandering back the opposite direction, I stretched out on the newly made hide-a-bed. "I really like your house. It's cozy."

"Yeah, well, my stepmom isn't here yet." Annabeth sat next to me, folding her hands on her lap and staring into the fire.

There was a long silence.

The electric fire in the fireplace continued to crackle merrily and the lights on the Christmas tree were twinkling different colors and I noticed that Annabeth was wearing reindeer socks.

She noticed me staring and rolled her eyes. "Do you want some Christmas cookies? I can get us some."

"Sure. Why not?"

My eyes followed her as she got up and left to disappear into the kitchen. This was going to be the best week _ever_.

As promised, Bobby and Matthew got off the bus around 2:30 and they came bounding in. Of course, they were thrilled to see me, and asked if I'd beheaded any monsters lately. When I told them I hadn't, they decided I wasn't cool enough for their immediate attention, so they busied themselves with trying to get into the Christmas decorations.

When Annabeth refused to let them do that, they sulked off. It only lasted for half an hour until Annabeth's stepmother came home. She said a polite "hello" to me and Annabeth, and drank a quick cup of tea before announcing they were going outside to put up the last of the Christmas lights.

Bobby and Matthew ran around excitedly, hastily putting on their snow gear.

While they were doing that, Annabeth turned to me. "Do you want to go out and help hang lights?"

When I'd grinned and said, "Sure," we put our shoes and coats on again, and pulled on gloves.

"The snow's pretty deep," Annabeth observed as we tromped around the side of the house. "Maybe we can make a snowman some time."

"We can give it tentacles," I suggested.

"And make it eating someone!" Matthew bounded over to us, carrying a bundle of lights in his arms. "With big, sharp pinecone teeth!"

Okay, maybe not.

Jia, Bobby and Matthew set to work on the outside of the living room windows and Annabeth and I were working on tacking a string of plastic icicle lights onto the rim of the roof. It started just a little over head-height and sloped upwards, and for a while, we worked quietly as a team.

It was when the roof got a little too high Annabeth had trouble. She stood on her tiptoes, struggling to pin the last foot of lights up.

"Here, let me get that for you," I offered, reaching up, but she slapped my hand away.

"That's okay, I've got it." She gritted her teeth and tried stretching higher.

"Really, I can—"

"_I've got it,_" she said again, smacking me away (again).

To her obstinate tone, I took a handful of snow up in my gloves and stuffed it down the back of her jacket.

A muffled shriek burbled from her throat and she jerked away, squirming. "PERCY JACKSON," she yelled, hastily brushing the melting snow from her back and scowling at me with a deathly scowl. "You did _not_ just put snow down my back."

"Of course n—HEY!"

She grabbed a handful of snow and tucked it in my own shirt, laughing.

Within seconds we were rolling around on the ground, trying to shove snow in each other's faces and articles of clothing.

Annabeth got me in a headlock and began stuffing yet more snow into my shirt, but I managed to flip her onto her back and pin her.

"Oh stop that, you two," Jia scolded lightly. "You're setting a bad example for the boys."

Bobby and Matthew, who were trying to stuff snow in one another's faces were stopped, and they tossed their handfuls of the cold crystals back onto the ground with a huff.

Reluctantly, I let Annabeth up and promptly got punched in the gut. We both grinned.

After fixing the last few pieces of lights, all five of us—me, Annabeth, Jia, Bobby and Matthew—stood back in the driveway to admire the lights.

Their whole house was rimmed with colors flickering in the cool, blue light of evening. They blinked at us merrily, and the little plastic icicles swung delicately in the slight breeze.

"I think we did a good job," Mrs. Chase told the two boys, putting her arms around them.

Despite what Annabeth had always said about her stepmother, I couldn't quite see what she was talking about. I know that she wouldn't make up something terrible about anyone, but all I'd seen of Jia was her just being a regular mom. Maybe not quite so maternal to Annabeth, but not a total witch.

"Come on, let's go in and see what we're having dinner."

We all shuffled our wet shoes out of the cold.

Back inside, Annabeth and I hung our coats and gloves above the fireplace to dry and waddled into Annabeth's room to get dry clothing. Getting snow shoved down our pants was _not_ comfortable.

After changing into a pair of clean, dry pajama pants and a T-shirt in the bathroom, Annabeth and I were required to set the table. Professor Chase was coming home at 6:00, and it was about 5:30. Annabeth's half-brothers were helping their mom mash some potatoes.

When Professor Chase came home a little after six, everyone welcomed him warmly and we sat down for dinner.

"Hey, Dad," Matthew asked while Jia was putting some corn on his plate, "We're going to put the ornaments on the tree after dinner, right?"

"I promised, didn't I?" The professor smiled and motioned to his son's food. "Now eat your dinner, sport. Can't decorate trees on an empty stomach."

When I caught Annabeth giving me a look, I grinned at her affectionately.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked her.

"You have something in your teeth."

Of course.

I kicked her under the table.

After dinner we broke out the box of ornaments and everyone helped put them on the tree. Bobby climbed up onto his dad's shoulders to put a red globe near the very top.

There were so many ornaments: at least three times the amount the tree back at my house had. There were racecars and miniature books and pictures and candy canes and weird fruit and colored bulbs of every shape and size. There was barely a square inch that didn't have an ornament or a string of popcorn or cranberries draped on it.

When we got to the stockings, Annabeth frowned and made an obviously upsetting statement.

"We don't have a stocking for you, Percy." She put an apologetic arm around my waist. "I'm sorry. We'll pick one up for you in town tomorrow."

"That's totally fine, Annabeth," I told her. "I don't need one, anyways. There's no point."

"Yes there is." She let go of me and crossed her arms. "You're getting a stocking. You need one."

After rolling my eyes at her, I flicked the side of her head and shoved my hands in my pockets. "You're so stubborn…"

Annabeth just smiled.

When the night came, the Christmas tree lit up the whole living room, even none of the lights in the house were on. Mr. and Mrs. Chase had said their goodnights, tucked the boys in bed, and called it a night as well.

Annabeth stayed up later, though. I made us some hot chocolate and we sat curled up together on the hide-a-bed, a blanket wrapped around our shoulders, staring at the fireplace. The whole room was a splash of warm color, and with the quiet crackling of the fireplace, the whole thing made me incredibly cozy.

"Today went by faster than I thought it would," Annabeth said quietly after a pause.

"Yeah…" I took a sip of coco. "It was fun, though. More fun than lying around playing Halo all alone until four in the morning."

"What's Halo?"

I laughed quietly and adjusted my arm around her waist, feeling her curls scrunch up against my neck. "Never mind, Annabeth. I was trying to make a point."

"I understood your point." Her exasperated snort was adorable, and she twisted around to look at me. "It _is_ a lot better. I doubt this week will be better than Montauk, but—"

"It will be."

Annabeth locked onto my gaze and read it as easily as a book. To my disappointment, her face fell just a tiny bit.

"I was…I've been thinking about that, Perce. For a long time." She bit her lip. "I don't…I don't know about that so much anymore."

If she was talking about what I thought she was talking about, it surprised me more than I thought it would. She was the one who was trying to convince _me _during the summer, not the other way around.

"You're mad now." Annabeth huffed loudly and flopped her head back onto my shoulder dramatically. "I'm sorry, Perce, I just… I wasn't thinking properly. I'm really, just… I don't…"

"Annabeth," I interrupted her a second time, putting my finger up to her lip. "Really, calm down. I'm not mad."

"Well, I'd worked so hard to convince you, and…" A blush was slowly growing on her cheeks until it was bright red. She covered her face up with her hands. "For the love of Zeus, this is embarrassing."

"Easy." After making an attempt at prying her hands away from her face, I gave up and pulled the blanket around her snugly. "I said I respected you and that hasn't changed. We don't have to talk about this right now."

Still an insane shade of pink, Annabeth slowly lowered her hands. "I'm still thinking. I've just been worrying. About everything."

"Well, you worry too much. Shut up and enjoy tonight as it is."

A teensy smile appeared on her face and crinkled up the corners of her brilliant silver eyes. She started to say something, but I cut it off with a kiss.

She tasted like chocolate and cinnamon.

"You win this one, Percy," Annabeth finally said, halfway between a grin and a pout. "But don't think you're getting away with anything."

"Whatever."

I sat back to enjoyed the crackling fire, the warmth of my girlfriend in my arms and the flickering Christmas lights.

**oOo**

_It's about time I had this done! _

_Just to let you guys know, they didn't, like, fall asleep together. You'll figure it out in chapter 3. _

_And all the other chapters will be a lot better, with less OOC-ness, longer explanation of what they're doing, probably way more fluff. Just better in general. I was off while writing this. Don't give up on me!_

_Hope y'all liked it, and I'll try to get the next one out a little sooner._

_Please review if you liked it! Love you guys, and hope you have a good weekend!_


	3. Chapter 3

_I re-read Mark of Athena—the first time I'd picked up the book since throwing it across the room the first time I read it._

_Writing this feels like trying to paint a picture with a dead man's blood. _

_That's why it's taken so long and sucks so bad. Rick Riordan has torn my heart out with a clam-digger._

**oOo**

I woke to someone clearing their throat, with a morning headache and drool caked to my chin. Mumbling something incoherently, I wiped the saliva off my face and peeled my eyes open.

"That's really gross, you know." Annabeth, who had been sitting next to me on the hide-a-bed, cleared her throat again and rolled her eyes. "You're drooling problem."

"I can't help it…" I flopped onto my stomach and heaved a sigh into the pillows. "What time is it?"

"Around seven." Before she got up and began walking away towards the kitchen, she turned back to me briefly and said, "If you want breakfast, you're going to want to get up and get it now."

I _did_ want, so I got up.

Since Annabeth knew my favorite cereal, when I entered the kitchen, she already had a bowl of Froot Loops poured for me on the table. I tried giving her a kiss before I sat down, but she put a finger up between our mouths.

"Eat, brush your teeth, and _then_ I'll think about kissing you," Annabeth said with a stern, yet amused look.

"Picky, picky…"

Halfway through breakfast, everyone else filed into the kitchen and the day really began.

Bobby and Matthew charged in, wearing matching sets of rocket ship pajamas, yelling about bacon and waffles, followed by Mr. and Mrs. Chase, looking frazzled, but otherwise awake.

"Good morning Annabeth, Percy," Professor Chase said before pouring himself a cup of coffee and sitting down at the table with a newspaper. He looked like a typical working father, peering at the newspaper over his glasses, a cup of black coffee in one hand.

"'Morning, Dad." Annabeth picked up her bowl and slurped some milk out of it. "Can we borrow one of your cars today?"

"Cutting right to the chase, aren't you?" The professor let out a sigh and folded his newspaper again. "Well, I have to take the boys to school, and Jia has to go to work, so if you want one of the cars Jia will have to be okay being driven to work today. Is that okay with you, Jia?" Mr. Chase leaned back in his chair to ask his wife.

"You leave for your classes before I get off work, dear," Mrs. Chase said, not missing a beat, and slid some bacon onto plates for Bobby and Matthew.

"Yes, but I'm done with classes until after the holidays."

"Then it's up to you. They _are_ your cars, and they _are_ teenagers."

Was it just me, or did Jia give Annabeth a rude glance before going back to cooking breakfast?

Professor Chase just laughed good-naturedly and accepted a plate of waffles from his wife. "I trust them. They _did_ defeat a Titan lord, you know. I'm pretty sure they can drive themselves around town."

My mind was made: Annabeth's dad was the awesomest dad in the whole world. Except for maybe mine. Even Annabeth looked a little smug at her father's comment.

"Percy's a very good driver," she said cheekily to her stepmom, standing and taking our empty bowls. "I'm sure he can handle it, too."

"Then it's settled. You two can take the Beretta." After dabbing a bit of syrup off of the table with a napkin, Professor Chase smiled at us. "Do you need any money?"

Of course, Annabeth had told me stories back at camp of how her dad was wealthy, but never flaunted it. Back when they were on bad terms, he'd try to send her reconciliation gifts that were expensive and weird, but never worked. She'd complained about how she wished that they weren't so wealthy, because then maybe it would be easier to keep him out of her mind.

Annabeth snorted. "It's okay, dad. We're not going on a complete shopping spree. Just picking up some stuff."

"We're out of gingerbread; you can get that when you're out." Even Jia made it possible to sound rude when talking about gingerbread.

With a discreet glare at her stepmother, Annabeth just cleared her throat. "We're probably not leaving right away."

"Why not?" I asked, propping my feet up on a chair opposite mine under the table.

She shoved them down. "_Because _you need to shower and comb that ridiculous mop of your hair down and put on some _real_ clothing."

"Oh, so _I'm_ stalling our little trip, now, am I?"

"I'm not arguing with you about this."

Fine. I'll let her win that time. With a short laugh, I kissed the side of her head and got up.

_Women._

During the half-hour it took for the rest of the family to get ready to leave, Annabeth and I took our time.

I found a decent set of clothing in my backpack that I'd brought and—to Annabeth's constant nagging—took a shower before changing. I combed my hair until it was to her satisfaction, brushed my teeth until she would kiss me, and waited patiently as she took a million years deciding what to wear.

"Does it really take that long to put some pants and a shirt on?" I asked her jokingly when I heard the bathroom door open behind me.

"I'm choosing to ignore you on that one."

When she came into my view, I saw that Annabeth wasn't wearing _just_ pants a shirt. She had on what looked like a knitted black turtleneck sweater, but it was too long to be a sweater. It fell just over halfway up her thighs and was thrown over a pair of grey tights. To complete the look, she had black winter boots laced halfway up her knees.

"Stop staring at my legs," Annabeth ordered, snapping a hair band on her blond side-braid.

The request went right over the top of my head, and I found myself staring at them _just _to annoy her, right up until she punched my shoulder.

After shoving my wallet in the back pocket of my jeans and throwing on a jacket, I turned to Annabeth. "Are you ready _now_?"

"I have been for a while! Are we going or not?"

"We're going, we're going..."

Professor Chase's car that he'd lent to us for the day was an old, blue Chevy Beretta. It looked as though it could've broken apart by just opening the door, but it was surprisingly sturdy.

We got in, and when it started just fine, we were on our way.

For a minute, things were silent while driving. The roads weren't icy or bad, and the traffic wasn't terrible.

Part of me was a little worried that Annabeth was mad, so it took a bit before I got the courage to glance over at her.

She looked back.

"You seem concerned, Percy," Annabeth noted curiously.

"...I was just afraid you were upset at me." My eyes turned back to the road.

"Why in the world would you think I'm upset at you?"

When I glanced over at her again, she was giving me an incredulous expression like she understood me less than she understood the reproductive system of cuttle fish.

It was kind of amusing, actually, and I laughed. "I don't know. You just seemed a little short with me this morning. I was afraid I'd done something terribly wrong and you were going to be mad at me for the rest of the week."

Annabeth laughed, too, and reached over to grab my hand that I wasn't driving with. "I wasn't mad at you in the first place! Perce, you're really going to have to get used to my morning attitude when I'm at home, because otherwise this relationship isn't going to work."

My heart skipped an unintentional beat. "Seriously?"

"No, _idiot_." She squeezed my hand and rolled her eyes. "Loosen up, will you? We get to spend as long as we want away from the house shopping around. Try and have some fun and not worry, for once."

"I'm not worrying!"

"Just...be quiet and drive."

It was interesting shopping with Annabeth. We went to the mall, where she insisted on buying me my own stocking to hang at the fireplace, even when I told her to not bother.

"You are just so _stubborn_," I grumbled as we left the store. "Can't I give my input sometimes?"

"You do. I just don't listen." Nodding her head defiantly, Annabeth briefly let go of my hand that she was holding to adjust the messenger bag on her shoulder. "Where next?"

"...Gingerbread?"

She was distracted by a big ice cream parlor sign and she tugged on my hand. "Ice cream first."

"ADHD much, Annabeth?"

She just ignored me and dragged me into the parlor.

The walls were terrifying shades of bubble-gum pinks and baby blues and bright, happy yellows. Pictures hung all over the walls of smiling people eating ice cream and babies and stuff. It was awful.

"How about we go buy some of that gingerbread your stepmom wanted?" I suggested, shrinking away from one of the workers (who was washing a table while donning a purple apron with an ice-cream cone patch on the pocket). "I just remembered I'm really not in the mood for ice cream right now."

"Don't be a baby. Two double-scoop cones of mint chocolate chip, please," Annabeth asked of the smiling lady behind the counter. "Extra sprinkles for Mr. Grumpy Butt over here."

The lady suppressed a wider smile while scooping our ice cream.

"This is seriously compromising my manliness being in here…"

"Do you need to go outside and wait in the car, Percy?"

"No, b—"

"Then stop complaining."

"Gods, you sound like my mother…"

After getting the ice cream and leaving the bubbly, pink equivalent of Hell, I wrapped my free arm around Annabeth's waist to pull her closer to me.

"You know, Percy," she began, catching a stray drip of ice cream with her tongue, "if stopping for ice cream compromises your masculinity, then maybe you shouldn't have come shopping with me."

"It's not shopping that's so painful. It's ice cream parlors like that which make me feel like I belong in a My Little Pony movie."

"You're such a wimp. Let's go."

At the next store we went to, Annabeth bought some gingerbread for gingerbread houses. She refused to let me have any—though it was fully cooked and smelled too good to resist—and instead, brought me to the edge of the rails.

The mall we were in was built…hollow, I suppose. There were rings of hallways around the edges, all the way up to the seventh floor, and on each floor was railing so no matter how high of level you were shopping at, you could always lean over the edge and see the people down on the first floor.

As we were looking over then, there was a moment when I felt perfectly normal—like a mortal. There weren't any monsters to watch out for or myths to be worried about being true, or gods after us.

Four stories below, people looked to be enjoying themselves. We saw a large radio system set up in the center of clusters of tables and couches. Families sat around, eating burgers as kids chased each other around in red Santa hats. Other people—mostly just young couples and circles of kids—were in the cleared area, dancing around happily with each other to Christmas music coming from the speakers.

"What are you thinking?" Annabeth asked me curiously, biting into her cone. "That's your 'I-have-another-stupid-idea' face."

"It's not stupid." I wrapped my hand around hers once more and began guiding her towards an escalator. "Come on."

Reluctantly, she followed.

It took three trips down the escalator before we were at the bottom. Annabeth was just finishing off the last bit of her treat when I took both of her hands and led her into the middle of the makeshift dance floor.

It didn't take much smarts to know what I had planned.

"Seriously, Percy? Seriously?" Annabeth laughed when I put my free hand on her waist, squeezing her hand I already was holding.

I waggled my eyebrows at her.

"Well… Okay, fine. Just one s—Ah!" Her words were abruptly cut off when I pulled her tight against me and spun us to the beginning of "Jingle Bell Rock".

It was impossible for her to stay unwilling for long. Within seconds she was giggling—gods, I loved it when she giggled. It was so…_weird._

Alright, I admit, it was probably a total idiot move, but I dared making an attempt to dip Annabeth at the end of the song.

Her eyes widened with momentary surprise and she squeaked, tightening in my arms. When I pulled Annabeth back, however, she looked shaken.

"You could have dropped me!" she exclaimed, putting her arms around my neck for "Walking in a Winter Wonderland".

Both my hands slid down and curled on her hips. "But I didn't. One of these days you're going to have to trust me."

"Of course I trust you, Perce." When she saw my incredulously raised eyebrow, Annabeth's hilarity grew. "I do. Really. With killing monsters and saving the world. Not so much dancing."

"Well, when I become the next Fred Astaire, you'll be a poor, uncoordinated little girl sitting on the sidelines wishing you had my moves."

"In your dreams." Still chuckling and pressing close against me, Annabeth stood up on her tiptoes and kissed me.

I really hated those moments that I forget that we're in public when she kisses me, and I kind of…get carried away.

Annabeth's laugh bubbled up between our lips, and she pulled away much too soon. "Percy, that's…that's probably not a good idea right now."

If she was expecting an apology, she didn't get one. I wasn't sorry. However, she obviously didn't care that much, because Annabeth changed the subject pretty quickly.

"Before we leave today I need to buy your present." Her cheeks turned a little pink, as if she was embarrassed, but her mien didn't betray any of that feeling. "Can I trust you to stay put in one place while I get it?"

"No."

"At least you're honest about it." She turned, as if to pull away, but I held on, confused.

"I didn't think you meant right this second." My face should have been convincing enough. "Give me a few more dances. I'm enjoying this."

Thankfully, Annabeth didn't argue. She sighed, as if annoyed, but let me lead her into another dance.

It took a while for us to finally drag ourselves away from the dance floor (more like, Annabeth to drag _me_ away) and plop onto one of the nearby couches to figure things out. By "couch" I meant rock-hard rectangular-ish sitting device that was in no way near as cozy as the couches back at Annabeth's house.

Annabeth tucked her feet up underneath her and quickly double-checked a slip of torn notebook paper from her messenger bag, and then looked back up at me with a determined air. "So I shouldn't expect you to still be here when I get back, should I?"

I thought for a second and shook my head.

"We'll meet back here, then, okay?"

From our several years of going on quests together and partnering to fight monsters, my first instinct was to suggest we don't split up, but I laughed at myself and dismissed the tendency. "Yeah, sure. That sounds fine."

After a brief kiss goodbye, the both of us wandered off in our own directions.

I'd thought long and hard about what to get Annabeth. Several things were on my mind, but most of them were not gift material for her as a Christmas present, just because it didn't feel right. Ideas came and went, and I passed by a billion stores before I finally made up my mind.

Never mind the strange looks I got from cashiers. I was too busy marveling at my own cleverness to care.

When at last I was finished, I made my way back to the first floor to the meeting spot with my hands clasped firmly around two separate packages in my jacket pocket. Annabeth was already there, sitting cross-legged on the seat, sipping on a purple-colored smoothie and gazing off into the distance.

"How many sugary, frozen dairy products do you need to eat today?" I asked with amusement, plopping down next to her and grabbing her smoothie for a taste. It was some sort of raspberry blend.

"It's not a dairy product, genius." Annabeth grabbed it back and kicked me. "It's fruit. And cold things help me think."

"What are you thinking about?"

"How annoying you are."

After making sure the little packages in my pocket weren't in danger of falling out, I took my hands away and poked at the big paper bag she had propped up against the couch at her feet. "What's this?"

"Imminent death. Stop being so nosy; it's a surprise." She smacked my hand away and scooted the bag farther from me. "Do we need to get anything else while we're out and about?"

"I got what I came for." I patted the lumps in my pocket. "It's a little early, though. You sure you want to leave just yet? We can drive around for a bit. Maybe we can get lunch together or something."

The sarcastic smirk on Annabeth's lips grew into a normal smile. "I'd like that," she said, and then stood, starting to hook her several bags onto her arms.

When I offered to help carry things, she piled everything except for my mystery present into my arms. Such a sweet girl.

For a while, Annabeth and I did drive around. Our stuff was piled in the back of the car and we just drove through the linking streets of the city. My hand was stretched across the space between our seats to rest in her lap as she held it between both of her own.

We talked little. Most of our interaction was just me glancing over at her and she smiled, and I'd give her a smile in return and squeeze her fingers before looking back at the road. It may seem boring or unsociable, but it was perfect. Just the two of us seeing what there was to see together, time away from monsters of annoying family.

Around one in the afternoon Annabeth and I stopped for lunch, and ended up sitting in a warm café that had golden lighting and the best Swiss-cheese-and-sprouts sandwich in the entire state of New York. It was impossible to ignore as I sat there across from her; she was _gorgeous_. Her black sweater-dress hugged her body and her golden side-braid tickled the table as she leaned over it and her lips looked so temptingly red.

Several times, Annabeth would stop herself in the middle of saying something to narrow her eyes at me inquisitively, because she knew I was staring. Why wouldn't I be? I'm sure she didn't mean to look so amazing, but somehow she managed to look better than any of the Aphrodite girls back at camp. Whenever she stopped talking like that, I'd just take a sip of my drink and urge her to continue. Eventually I just turned my ears off and watched her talk, rather than listened.

Eventually, the waiter finally got tired of us throwing French fries at each other and made it clear that we'd worn out our welcome, so we left. As we were walking down the steps, Annabeth turned to me.

"You know, sometimes it would do you well to not be so obvious when checking me out," she said, trying very hard holding back a grin. "People notice. It's embarrassing."

"It's not my fault," I insisted stubbornly, only pausing to open the car door for her. "I'll stop staring when you stop being beautiful."

For quite a bit, Annabeth attempted arguing with me about that, but I didn't let her win. In fact, the whole rest of the ride home I gave her the silent treatment, though it didn't work very well; every few minutes we both would burst out in laughter.

It was a little after three when we arrived back at Annabeth's house. Mrs. Stepmom was back from work, and she and Professor Chase were in the kitchen having a talk over cups of coffee. They said "hi" to us briefly when we dropped the gingerbread off in the cupboard before going back to their discussion. Sounds of an action cartoon were coming from behind Bobby and Matthew's room door, so they were apparently home from the last day of their school before the break.

"Let's go to my room." Annabeth shifted her two bags in her hand and led the way down the hall and into her bedroom.

When we got there, she put the big paper bag in the closet and opened the other on her desk.

My stocking we'd bought was a simple red one with white trim and the edges sewn with thick decorative string. It took five minutes to write my name sloppily at the top in glittery fabric glue.

"Should we hang it up tonight?" Annabeth inquired, holding it up and letting it swing on her finger.

She was still dressed in her black sweater dress and tights.

"Let's let the glue dry." When I took it from her and set it back down on the desk, her expression was one she'd worn a lot that day: narrowed eyes and lips parted with curiosity.

Then she rolled her eyes. "Well, whatever, but I need to get out of these clothes." Without much warning to me at all, she stepped away towards her dresser and began shimmying her tights off.

"Whoa, hey." I covered my eyes with a hand automatically. "Don't…strip."

"I'm not stripping, idiot."

Annabeth then pulled pajama pants on under her dress, and then pulled the dress over her head.

"You're taking off your—!"

"I'm wearing a tank-top under it." When she was finished pulling a T-shirt on over the undershirt, Annabeth walked over and flicked me in the side of the head. "Honestly, you're so squeamish."

"You were the one who started pulling off your clothes right in front of me." I uncovered my eyes and saw Annabeth in front of her hanging mirror, brushing out her braid.

She snorted and picked at a tangle. "I wouldn't actually undress in front of you. I don't make it a habit of letting people see me without my clothes on.

I raised my eyebrows as high as they would go at her, because I knew the second that was said, she was thinking what I was thinking.

Annabeth pointed a finger at me threateningly. "Don't even, Percy Jackson."

My brain went way back to the summer, the last day we spent together when I'd gone over for dinner. Her parents arrived at her house later than we did, and there was some free time we had, and some…unexpected things happened. Not bad things, definitely not bad things. Just thinking about it, though, made me turn red in the face.

Scowling a little bit, Annabeth just went over to her desk again and began rummaging around in one of its drawers. Oh well. Maybe she was a little bitter about that, but it was honestly not my fault. She was the one that suggested it and actually—

Never mind. I didn't like thinking about it either, because it began making me wistful, and I already felt bad enough about the whole thing.

While Annabeth was still messing around at her desk, I plopped onto her bed and stretched out, lacing my fingers behind my head. "What are you looking for?"

"Some diagrams I'd sketched for the new recreation room on Olympus. I thought I could redraw them on my laptop since there's some time before dinner." She lifted up a stack of folders from the top of her writing table and pulled a few crumpled, used pieces of graph paper, making a satisfied noise. "There they are."

I watched with a sort of detached interest as she then grabbed the laptop Daedalus gave her and walked over to the bed and stood there for a few seconds.

"…You're on my bed," Annabeth noted.

"Yes ma'am. You're very observant."

"…Am I going to have to push you off?"

"Why would you do that?" I plucked a battered notebook from the nightstand and flipped it open, only to have it swatted out of my hand.

"Don't read my personal stuff."

Instead of shoving me off of the side of her bed like she'd suggested before, Annabeth just plunked her device on the surface of my chest and _sat _on me. Her knees were bent on either side of my torso and her laptop was open in front of her, using yours truly as a surface to type.

I wasn't sure how to feel about that. After getting over the whole being-unable-to breathe part of Annabeth sitting on me, of course. She just parked herself right there and went about copying the diagrams from paper to computer.

The more I thought about it, the more hilarious it got. Pretty soon, the laptop that was on my chest starting trembling because of my chuckles.

"Stop laughing," Annabeth ordered, though her voice sounded amused, too. "You're shaking my computer."

Her fingers flew over the keyboard. It wasn't completely obvious when she was done, but she tossed her paper down next to her bed and bent forwards so I could see her silver eyes above the top of the laptop screen. They were twinkling.

"I've got an idea." It was risky, but I took a chance, reached up and slowly closed the laptop lid with a finger. "There. Now I can actually see you as you crush me to death."

I half-expected her to get upset that I closed her computer, but she wasn't.

"I'm not that heavy; you're just being whiny." Eyebrows raised, she reached to set the gift from Daedalus back on the desk and leaned forwards on her elbows.

"Ow." I winced. "You're denting me."

"Well, seeing as how you wouldn't give me any room on my own bed…" Annabeth shifted, and I realized _just_ how close we were.

Both of her legs were straddling my waist, and she was leaning close to me on her elbows and—and that tank-top. Leaning forwards like that, I was overly tempted to cover my eyes again, to turn my head and whistle a ditty and pretend I didn't see.

Annabeth had never been the kind of girl to try and get guys to notice her, and she definitely didn't try using the…assets she'd developed as a teenage girl—a _Californian _teenage girl, nonetheless. She'd never flaunted her chest or wore miniskirts or anything like that, but she still managed to get noticed by just about every guy that laid eyes on her. As much as I did my best respecting her as a young woman, _I_ was a guy, and _I_ noticed, too. And by the gods, it was hard.

There I'd gone again, mind wandering everywhere it shouldn't be.

Being a daughter of Athena, and being _Annabeth_, of course she read into the situation. Maybe it wasn't obvious exactly what I was thinking, but she understood why I suddenly refused to make eye contact and hesitated putting my arms around her.

Annabeth stopped straddling me and instead, stretched flat, still on top of me, crossing her ankles in the air and folding her arms underneath her head.

I stammered, "I can move if you want."

"Don't do that." A contented sigh slipped from her lips and she shifted slightly, sinking so where her toes dangled over the edge of the bed. "I'd fall off."

Inside of me, the bubble of uneasiness popped and I laced my fingers behind her back, twisting them in her curls, and for a while, things didn't change. Though we were both ADHD, it was easier than usual to stay put and stay quiet. I was even convinced that Annabeth had fallen asleep for a minute. That is, right before she opened her eyes and told me that my shirt smelled like Play-Doh.

Eventually, Professor Chase called us for dinner.

When we heard his invitation, Annabeth simply rolled off of me and waited at the door until I came.

Dinner was pretty good, as usual, complete with shin-kicking under the table and stealing of food and yelling. Professor Chase politely noted that we were behaving worse than the boys, and we had to stop.

After we all finished eating, everyone dispersed, yawning and full.

Even after Annabeth went off to her own room, I laid awake on the hide-a-bed, watching the Christmas tree lights blink. It began making me really sleepy, but just before I fell asleep, there was a creak that came from behind the couch.

Lips pressed to my forehead and a voice murmured something, but I fell asleep before I could open my eyes and see Annabeth standing there in her pajamas brush a bit of my hair away.

**oOo**

_I'm sorry the ending sucked! I didn't know how to end it. Oh well._

_Hey, keep an eye out for a new story I'm writing with my friend! It's about when Percy and Annabeth get out of Tartarus. I'm just going to say, it's going to be really, really awesome, so keep an eye out!_

_Thanks for reading. Don't forget to review please!_


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